Prolly the least planned Dis Trip EVER! Our first family trip May 10-17th.

[PrincessBrideJo]

Hey Everyone! This is my first trip report here on the Dis so I hope you will bear with me!

First i will tell ya all a little about us.

My name is Joanna and I am 27 years old. This was my 8th trip to WDW. I am a stay at home mom of 2 very busy boys - William who is 4 and Josiah who is 20 months. My husband is a linux system administrator of a fortune 500 company. He has not shared my love of Disney but I am slowly bringing him to the "dark side". In fact I almost had him convinced to book another trip in November while we were there (since we got the deal to save 30% in our room), but since we are trying to move this year he wouldn't go all the way over the edge. This was his third trip to Disney, each of them with me! It was William's first trip to Disney as well, but poor Josiah had to stay home. He is a very....opinionated child and I didn't think he would deal well with lines, heat, less sleep, etc.

So here we all are....
This is me and William with one of my favorite characters.

My stats:
Favorite Characters - Figment, then Eeyore
Favorite ride this time - Dinosaur or Soarin (I also really liked everest but since I was right next to my 4 year old who was NOT liking it, it put a damper on the experience) or i really liked Toy Story Mania (can you tell I like rides...hehe)
Favorite moment of the trip - William seeing Mickey mouse during the spectro parade for the first time

This is my hubby, Chris (and William)

His Stats
Favorite Character - not into characters!
Favorite ride this time - Everest
Favorite moment of the trip - his times with William in pool

And finally William

His Stats
Favorite Character - green power ranger (since the power ranger posed him) and Woody
Favorite Ride - Toy Story Mania
Favorite moment - pool time!

Ok so the boy's favorite moments were a lot of moments as they swam everyday, but hey it was their fav times.

So if you read my pre-trip report at all you know that I am an incredibly plan happy person. I love to plan moment by moment, like most of us dissers. But this time hubby and I decided not to plan as much as we had no idea what to expect with our 4 year old. I didn't even know what parks we were going on each day....AHHHHH. It drove me crazy but it really worked best. Of course in my planning I did find all the great snacks and counter services (we had the counter service meal plan). My hubby greatly appreciated my knowledge there. He made fun of the disboard till I got him a mickey mouse rice crispy treat from Goofy's! haha. Of course he kept asking me "So what is the plan?" I about screamed at him but kept my cool saying "You told me not to plan, so what do YOU want to do".

So off for nap time with my boys (I gota take every chance I can! haha). So I will start our first day prolly later tonight! Hope everyone enjoys my Trip Report (it will have lots of snacks and dinning pictures as well!).

 

[lynn71092]

I'm in
Subscribing too!!

 

[crocko]

I'm first!

Like hearing reports and am ready to follow this one. My son is going to have recently turned 5 when we go later this year....will enjoy seeing how things went with you and your men.


Edit: beat by seconds, well I'm second!!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Boring - no picture post! I forgot to take any pictures this day...oh well!

So in case you didn't read my PTR know that my husband was gone the entire week before our trip and our house was for sale. So it was my duty to do the laundry, clean the house, pack and take sole responsibility for our 2 boys. Needless to say, I was stressed out. But I got over it. I decided house just needed to be picked up, not cleaned and that we weren't leaving till late on Saturday anyways so I could pack then.

Woke up on Saturday already dreading leaving Josiah. He is a momma's boy to say the least (and William is a daddy's boy so it works!) and I thought he was going to have such a hard time without me. And well I was gonna have a hard time without him! The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I would have hated our vacation with him there. It is horrible to say but I saw all those parents with the screaming toddlers and I knew that wasn't for me. I don't do well in high stress and would have ended up hating myself for yelling, screaming, etc. So that kept me moving.

Hubby had to mow the yard and I had to go to the store too to get our road trip food. He mowed first thing while I hung out with the kids and did the laundry he brought home that needed to go with us to Disney. Then he watched the boys while I went to the store. I got food and treats and all the left over stuff I had forgotten to get. Then came home and finished up the packing. I loaded up the car (I have what some call a "man's brain" so I am a mathematical/logical/science brain and can much better fit things into the car than my ADD husband) and loaded up the kids. This was about 5pm. We headed to my IL's house where my SIL was waiting for Josiah. She is such a wonderful person with kids. She took Josiah on a walk around their house while we left so he wouldn't notice us leaving cuz he could tell something was up.

Off we went. Google and the GPS told us it was a 16 hour drive (17 with the time change) and my mom told me it was a 23 hour drive when I was little so we were prepared for a 19-ish hour drive. We got subway on the way out of town and I bunkered down in our back seat of our minivan with lots of pillows, blankets and books. DS and I fought (and I mean that in a playful sense) over who got what blankets and DH drove most of the way. I took a 2 hour time of driving around 4-6 (Eastern Time)but that was about it! He is such a trooper!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Hello, Joanna:

I followed you over from my thread (Tears & Frustrations). You had mentioned taking your four year old in May and I was just about to PM you to see how it went when I noticed your TR link in your siggy.

So here I am! I can't wait to see how he did, most likely better than my DS4 behaved!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

I'm in
Subscribing too!!

Whoo hoo, thanks!

I'm first!

Like hearing reports and am ready to follow this one. My son is going to have recently turned 5 when we go later this year....will enjoy seeing how things went with you and your men.


Edit: beat by seconds, well I'm second!!

Hope you can learn something from my TR!

Hello, Joanna:

I followed you over from my thread (Tears & Frustrations). You had mentioned taking your four year old in May and I was just about to PM you to see how it went when I noticed your TR link in your siggy.

So here I am! I can't wait to see how he did, most likely better than my DS4 behaved!

Yes I remember you! Let me tell you on this trip I don't know how many times I said "SETTLE DOWN". The kid would get bored and just do stuff. There were also many "Get your TEETH off of me!". People look at you funny when you say that one, haha!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Can't wait to hear the story behind Get your TEETH off me! I'll bet it's a good one!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

So Sunday I woke up bright and early at 4am in the car to take my turn driving. Luckily I married a man who requires little sleep so he took back over at 6am (whew!)

I happen to drive us right into the FL welcoming center (my family must always take a picture in front of the FL sign as I have done this since I was little).

Here we are - In FL!!!!

We got our OJ which was yummy and then made ourselves some breakfast in the car. The boys both had PB&J and I had a muffin. Then we got back on the road and here was William a few minutes later....

I was soon to follow but luckily no one took a picture of me! I was sad when I woke up as my husband thought William and I would sleep longer and so he took the non-toll way which adds 30 minutes...ugh! Doesn't he know my desire to be out of the car and in Disney World!?

So I lived and although we never got to drive under the WDW sign I did get to snap these wonderful pictures....

(no that isn't water on our car....it is bug guts....the bugs were SO BAD while we were there. It must have been mating season as well as there was always 2 bugs....)

WE HAD FINALLY MADE IT!!!! Hip, hip horey! "Hurray for you, hurray for me..."

We parked in the check in parking and I held my breath as we checked in. Would our room be ready at noon!? And guess what.....IT WAS. I LOVE DISNEY!!!!!! The guy who checked us in was AWESOME and he was so nice. He wished me a happy mother's day and bugged my husband and William that they didn't give me anything. So he "one upped" my husband and gave me a celebrating button. How sweet! He was also way confused by my shirt as it says "Princeton Plainbourgh (sp?) Hospital". He wanted to know if I was from NJ and when I said "No" he said "Oh you just went to school there?" and I said "No". I was SO CONFUSED. And he said but you have it on your shirt. And I was like....oh this shirt is from the show House. He felt real stupid then. Haha.

We were told our room was in the Buzz section which was so exciting for William as Buzz is one of our fav characters. Hubby and I got so lost finding it because I ASSUMED it was layed ou the same as All Star Music....not so! So we finally found our way into Andy's room...

Our room was 842 and this was on our bed...

Now can anyone tell me is that suppose to be a tie on Mickey Mouse? Or his tongue? So confused....

After that I made Chris go and park the car and bring in the luggage while I unpacked (love being the mom, hehe). I hate living out of suitcases and must unpack all stuff. So I did that and got our room all set up. We all had a snack out our cooler and DH and I took showers as we were feeling pretty nasty.

We decided to make our way to Downtown Disney as we had ADRs at T-Rex at 5. It was about 3:30 when we left and we took a few pictures before we left...

Next installment......Downtown Disney. What will our first power struggle of the trip be over? Will our ADD son be able to enjoy a meal at T-Rex? How was the food at T-Rex? You will just have to wait and see!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Sorry it took me so long to update. I have had some health problems and haven't had the time or energy to do much else but take care of my kids! I promiseI will update a LOT more often now!

 

[crocko]

Is that RC picture photo-shopped? It looks like RC and your son are on a real neighborhood street.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Oh, I just LOVED T-REX! DS4 did okay in this restaurant for the most part, so I'm guessing there was A LOT your DS4 had to look at to keep him preoccupied.

Can't wait for the next installment!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Is that RC picture photo-shopped? It looks like RC and your son are on a real neighborhood street.

Nope, I am just that good...

Oh, I just LOVED T-REX! DS4 did okay in this restaurant for the most part, so I'm guessing there was A LOT your DS4 had to look at to keep him preoccupied.

Can't wait for the next installment!

Hopefully it will be tonight. They are showing our house tonight so today is clean, clean, clean!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Good luck on the showing. Wish I had a good excuse to clean my house!

 

[mickeystoontown]

You have such a cute family! I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next WDW vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity.

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Good luck on the showing. Wish I had a good excuse to clean my house!

Thanks. And trust me it is the only reason I clean my house...haha!

You have such a cute family! I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next WDW vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity.

Thank you, I think they are pretty cute! I know what you mean about keeping sane. I don't think our next trip will be till at least 2011, prolly 2012 unless some great deal comes ups (which lets face it...it always does )

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Alright so off we rode the bus to Downtown Disney. I swear that place has grown everytime we go there!

Our first trip was goofy's. We had a the CS snack plan which meant 2 snacks a day so we were scoping out our options. We didn't buy anything now as we didn't want to carry it around forever. But the scientist couldn't help but take these pictures...

So we still had some time to kill so we stopped by the lego store. William LOVED this store. I swear we could have spent all day here.

(he LOVES bionacles)

Aren't they cute? This is one of my fav pics from the trip!

So alas...we have made it to our first power struggle. We had not budgeted a lot of money for souvenirs and were not planning A LOT. But William found this set of legos ($30) that he wanted, BAD. Like real bad. It was horrible. And hubby and I were both ok with the $30 lego set, we would have gotten it for him. But that would have been it on his toy budget (ok, so yeah we went over this amount anyways...haha) and it was only our first day. We hadn't even made it in to the park. He would not be swayed. He did not want to wait for another day, he did not want the bionacles or the build your own bucket of legos....he wanted this specific toy. So hubby finally convinced him that if he still wanted it after dinner and 1 more store (world of disney) that he could have it. He was satisfied with that and off we went to dinner.

I LOVED t-rex. It was awesome. Our ADR was for 5 and so it wasn't busy at all. We got seated in the forest room right by the stegosaurus.

At first William was pretty freaked out by it. The first meteor storm really freaked him out but then he started to really enjoy himself. We ordered our food and then walked around to take pictures and look around...

When we got back to the table William took DH to see all the sites of the restaurant as well. Our food finally came (our waitress stunk, BAD) and it was really yummy. Well at least mine was. William's looked liked it came from SAMS and Chris said he was just like any other burger. I got some chicken sandwich on fried pizza dough and it was DELICIOUS!!!

mmmmm....good....

After dinner we headed to world of disney. William would not be swayed to buy any other toy no matter how much we showed him (remember this for later...) I did buy some cute hair bobbles and an autograph book and pen for William. It was then that I found out at that store they were having a promotion that if you use your Disney Visa you got 10% off...WHOO HOO. I decided I was buying everything there then, haha!

We headed back to the lego store to appease William.

So what did he get you may ask? He actually didn't get the $30 toy, amazing after all that, huh? What convinced him to not get it? DH told him he wouldn't be able to put it together in one night That was all it took! Kids can be so simple sometimes. So he settled for a smaller toy from that same line cuz his daddy could build it. And then the sales guy, man, he was working it. It actually made me MAD, but I wasn't buying the toy so I wasn't there to say anything. He told WILLIAM, yes my 4 year old, that if he was good this week he could come back and get the companion toy that went with it so he could put them together and make a BIG thing. Ummm...hello???? You gonna buy that for him then? You don't say that kind of thing to a 4 year old!!!!! Luckily it did go over DS's head and he forgot all about it.

Here is DS playing with his new set in the room the next morning...

After that we headed back to goofy's to get our candy. DS decided on a sucker (what a dork, haha ) and DH and I got the make your own rice crispies. Oh my goodness, what a great treat for a snack credit!!!! Yum, yum, yum!!!!!

DH's

Mine

After that we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. I, of course, couldn't sleep AT ALL. But DS chose to sleep with me this night (he only slept with me the first 2 nights, i think) and he fell asleep in my arms. I know there won't be many more of those times so it brought a tear to my eye. My baby boy is growing up so fast.

So next installment is our first day in actual Disney. What park did we go to? What was our first ride? What did William think? Where would we eat?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh my, I don't know if I could wait two whole years without going to Disney. We normally go during the last week of May through the first week of June (which would mean I'd be in Disney right now) but had to put off the trip until August. I am a paralegal in a one paralegal/one attorney law office and we had some major custody trials set in May and June. I certainly wasn't going to WDW in July so we scheduled it for August. I am having fits because I am having to wait two extra months.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Love the newest update. Glad you had a good time in DTD. I love T-REX! We haven't checked out the Lego store yet, tho. May have to give that a try.

What's up with that CM telling your son that? I would have been irritated by that also. Your lucky your DS forgot about it, because mine would have talked about it for the rest of the week! He's got the memory of an elephant - forgets nothing!

Hope the showing went well! We got a kitten last night (what was I thinking?? ), so now my house will never smell the same!!! Well, it made DS4 happy, so who am I to complain??

Can't wait to hear more. Great first day!!!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Oh, and one more thing: WHAT WAS UP WITH THE STINKY WAITRESS????

Please tell!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Oh my, I don't know if I could wait two whole years without going to Disney. We normally go during the last week of May through the first week of June (which would mean I'd be in Disney right now) but had to put off the trip until August. I am a paralegal in a one paralegal/one attorney law office and we had some major custody trials set in May and June. I certainly wasn't going to WDW in July so we scheduled it for August. I am having fits because I am having to wait two extra months.

Ugh I know. But with 2 little ones and a one income family who is moving -every year just isn't possible with us! Luckily we live close to St. Louis so we take mini-trips there and they have a GREAT zoo and a science museum (I have a biology degree and DS is soooooo interested in just about everything science).

Love the newest update. Glad you had a good time in DTD. I love T-REX! We haven't checked out the Lego store yet, tho. May have to give that a try.

What's up with that CM telling your son that? I would have been irritated by that also. Your lucky your DS forgot about it, because mine would have talked about it for the rest of the week! He's got the memory of an elephant - forgets nothing!

Hope the showing went well! We got a kitten last night (what was I thinking?? ), so now my house will never smell the same!!! Well, it made DS4 happy, so who am I to complain??

Can't wait to hear more. Great first day!!!

Oooooooohhhh, I love CATS. But my DS's have allergies so we had to get rid of ours. Boo! But I have two small dogs that kind of act like cats, haha!

Oh, and one more thing: WHAT WAS UP WITH THE STINKY WAITRESS????

Please tell!

Well she didn't literally stink, but she was a bad waitress. First of all I hate to be rude but she had a REALLY bad accent and I couldn't understand her very well. I understand that this can happen at Disney a lot, but it was already sooooo loud in the restaurant. Anyways DH ordered water and I ordered diet. She kept mixing them up and bringing the wrong person the wrong drink. My husband HATES diet and drinks like a camel with no hump! So he couldn't even eat half his dinner because he was SO THIRSTY. She didn't ever check on us. She wasn't at all friendly. She acted like we were annoying her! Very rude.